Bonding With Natsuki
by Danganrinpa
Summary: A version of DDLC where the MC romances Natsuki, sans Monika meddling. Rated M for cursing and eventual adult content.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: I'm a bit nervous about posting this because I don't always finish stories, even when I know I should. Regardless, I'm going to try to eventually bring this story to at least a somewhat satisfying conclusion. I appreciate criticism, as the point of posting these types of things is always to improve. Also, this story is going to go for a somewhat different take on Natsuki's father.**

* * *

Natsuki trots into my house slowly, eyeing my living room. She carries with her plastic bags stuffed with everything she might need for cupcakes, save an actual oven. Did she not think I would get the stuff she asked for? She walks into my kitchen without a word, evidently eager to begin an investigation.

I follow after her. "A hello would be nice before we get started."

She scoffs. "I just want to make sure you've got everything I need. We can talk while the cupcakes are baking."

She seems rather serious about this. How long is it going to take exactly to make these? That seems like something I probably should have looked up before she came. Regardless, I back off and let Natsuki get to work. She issues some simple commands to me, making what I can only assume is full use of the extra pair of hands. I enjoy helping Natsuki and all, but I was kind of under the impression that there would be a bit more to us working together than dead silence in between orders. Did I misread the situation? Is Natsuki really not interested in anything besides getting the cupcakes done and then leaving?

I finally decide to pipe up. "Hey, Natsuki... don't you want to talk or something?"

She looks over to me from the counter, seemingly caught off guard by my sudden question.

"Talk about what? I'm just here to bake, remember?"

"Yeah, I know but... we're friends, aren't we? I feel like we should at least be making small talk."

"I-I didn't say we were friends! What made you think that?"

Oof. I knew saying that plainly wouldn't get the best reaction from her but I wasn't expecting to be totally shut down.

Natsuki notices the dejected look on my face. "I didn't say we weren't friends, either, just... don't make assumptions, you know?"

I smirk. She left an opening. "So we are friends, but you don't want to admit it? Is that right?"

Natsuki turns away from me, thinking carefully over her response. If she just stutters something like "N-no! We're definitely not friends!" now, she'll just be proving my point. If she can't renege her only option is to-

Suddenly, something hits my face. I snap to and see a bit of batter on Natsuki's finger and a big grin on her face. I trace a finger down where the substance connected to find batter on my finger, as threw it at me.

"H-hey! What do you think you're doing?" I ask. Natsuki only giggles in response, and I see her move to get some batter to flick at me. With no choices I step towards her a grab her hands, pinning her against the wall.

"Hey, that's no fair! You're stronger than me!"

I chuckle. "I don't see how that's my problem."

Natsuki struggles for a moment before giving up. "Fine, I surrender."

I think it over for a second, but decide to let Natsuki go. I can see that once she's free she debates for a second whether to not try to for another attack. Ultimately, she decides against it and returns to make the cupcakes. We get back to working as we were before, but the air feels lighter. Natsuki even tags a "please" onto some of her requests.

* * *

As the cupcakes are left to bake Natsuki and I step out of the kitchen. I plop down on the sofa in the living room and Natsuki takes the chair next to me.

"How long do they need to bake?" I ask Natsuki. She shoots me a look that tells me I should already know.

"20 minutes. I already told you that, didn't I?"

"Oh, uh, did you? I must have forgotten."

Natsuki lets out a "humph" and turns away. I guess I better pay more attention from now on.

"Uh, anyway, what should we do until they come out?"

Natsuki's eyes light up and she hops out of her chair and runs into the kitchen. "Hey, wait!" Why did she run off like that? Should I go after her? Before I can decide, she comes back in with a volume of Parfait Girls.

"Here! I brought this so we could read some more. That's fine with you, right?"

She wants to keep reading manga... I had assumed we would just watch TV or something, but I guess she really wants to pick up where we left off.

Natsuki sits down on the couch next to me and hands me the book. I open it and begin to read, as Natsuki silently watches. I'm not particularly interested in this manga, but with Natsuki next to me I begin to feel time slip away. Most of what I'm reading goes in one ear and out the other, but having Natsuki so close is enough to completely consume me. I return to reality when I hear a timer go off. Before I can even register what it means, Natsuki has already gotten out of her chair and run to the oven to retrieve her sweets. I put down the book and move to join her.

* * *

Natsuki packs up her things and places a bookmark where I left off in Parfait Girls. She starts to walk over to the door, but I can see she's hesitant to leave. I decide now's a good time to take a chance.

"You know, Natsuki, you don't have to leave just yet. I know we were only supposed to meet up for the cupcakes, but that doesn't mean we can't just hang out, too."

Natsuki turns to me and looks conflicted, as if she can't decide what she wants to do. "Well... I would like to stay a little longer, but I don't think I can. I really did enjoy today, but my dad would kill me if I stayed here too long."

A rapping of knuckles suddenly sounds from door. Surprised, I cut short my conversation with Natsuki to answer it. I pull open the door to find a man in a nice suit, with short brown hair and steely gray eyes. For a moment, surprise flashes across his face, before being replaced with a friendly smile.

"Hello, there. I'm here for Natsuki. I take it you're the one she came to bake cupcakes with?"

I nod, a bit taken aback by the man's initial hardness, before a transition into surprise and then friendliness.

Natsuki pushes by me to get to her father. "Uh, sorry I wasn't outside, dad. Let's go."

The man doesn't respond, but I notice he grabs Natsuki's wrist and simply pulls her outside. That seemed a bit more rough than necessary. Before I can think on this, I hear the muffled voices of Natsuki and her father coming from the other side of the door. I carefully place my ear against the door in the hopes I can listen in.

"Natsuki, you didn't tell me it was a boy you were going to be baking with. You must know I wouldn't have approved."

"Dad, it's no big deal. All we did was a little baking, nothing happened. You don't need to worry so much."

"No talking back. Now get in the car, we'll discuss this later. I'm sure you've already had plenty to eat at his house, so just a bit for dinner tonight."

I can almost hear Natsuki pouting as car door opens and then shuts. I'm left only with my thoughts as I consider what just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: I feel pretty unsure about this chapter, mainly in the way it's paced and the writing with the characters. I greatly appreciate any criticism anyone might have, and I'd like to redo this chapter, and maybe parts of the whole story. I don't know exactly when that will be, but reading over this chapter I can't help but feel it's not exactly where I want it to be. Apologies if you think this story has taken a dip in quality, but seeing as I already took over a week to get out a frankly short chapter, I wanted to get something out. Sorry again if this isn't as good as you hoped it would be.**

I don't hear from Natsuki again until the day of the festival, when she sends me a reminder to grab the cupcakes. Her text is pretty direct compared to what she'd been texting me over the weekend. I respond with a simple "OK" and take the sweets to school.

* * *

Arriving at the Literature Club, I notice the only other person here is Monika. She starts to explain the plans for the day, but I'm too concerned with being able to put down the trays of cupcakes to really pay attention. After getting myself settled I kindly ask for a brief recap.

Monika frowns, clearly annoyed, but obliges anyway. "Fine. The long and short of it is that I've got everyone's poem laminated and when Yuri gets here I need you to help me set up the decorations."

I nod, and flip through everyone's poems. Sayori's is bittersweet, Yuri's has the flowery language she always uses, and Natsuki's is shorter and very to the point. I, of course, just picked a poem from online. Writing poetry for the club is one thing, but there's no way in hell I'm reading it out loud for a bunch of people.

As I set the poems back down, Yuri walks into the room, carrying a rather absurd amount of decorations. Monika and I scramble to help her, and after a few minutes we set everything up. Looking around the room, I have to say that Yuri did a pretty good job. Candles are the only lighting in the room, and Yuri's "LITERATURE CLUB" banner has covered up some of the posters the teacher had up. The room feels quite cozy.

While the three of us admire our work, Sayori stumbles, winded, into the classroom. "Sorry, guys! I overslept again!"

She seems to be panting. Did she seriously run here? I was too busy thinking about Natsuki this morning to check on her, but maybe I should have. I think about for just a few seconds before out of the corner of my eye, I see Sayori trying to swipe one of the cupcakes before being caught by Monika. Yeah, I think Sayori is doing fine.

Monika gets the girls up to speed and I'm left alone with my thoughts. They quickly turn to Natsuki, who still has yet to arrive. I can't help but think of her father, too. He had seemed a bit rough with her, but she's okay, right? I mean, her seemed a bit ticked off but Natsuki went along with it like it was nothing new.

Before my mind can cook some nightmare scenario for her to fall into, Natsuki comes in as well, joining the rest of the group. She seems fine,.and Monika, Sayori, and Yuri as normal, However, she seems to make a point not to acknowledge me. After checking that her deserts are present and accounted for, Natsuki walks over to me.

"Thanks for remembering to bring the cupcakes."

With that she walks away, picking up where she left off with the other girls, acting like everything is completely normal. It seems like the only one she's being distant towards is me. This must have something to do with the talk she had with her dad, but could one conversation really change how treated me this much, even in the club? Natsuki seems so headstrong, I can't imagine she would be acting this way without a good reason. Is there something she's not telling me? I'm left to my thoughts as the festival starts up.

* * *

The festival goes surprisingly well. Everyone manages to read their poems without screwing up too badly, and a surprising number of people not from the club get up to read poems themselves. Despite, this I'm left troubled as Natsuki remains distant the entire day. When the festival finally winds down, the five of us are left in the Literature Club room to begin cleaning up. Bits of frosting and cupcake wrappers are scattered about, and a couple of Yuri's decorations have fallen to the floor. The room also needs to be rearranged so that the teacher won't have to do it themselves tomorrow. Monika immediately takes charge, directing us to various tasks.

She and Sayori begin to set the classroom up properly again, while Yuri cleans up her décor and Natsuki and I clean up the remnants of the cupcakes.

"Natsuki, I'm gonna grab a trash bag, okay? We'll put all the garbage in there."

Natsuki glances at me for just a moment before returning the wiping off a desk that someone had spilled something on. "Yeah, sure."

I can't help but grimace as I fetch the trash bag. Things seem to have gone so well, and yet Natsuki is acting just as uninterested as she did this morning. She acts normally around Monika, Yuri and Sayori, but treats me like I barely exist. I make up my mind; I'll confront Natsuki about this after the room is clean. I have to know what's going on.

* * *

With everyone working together, the room is cleaned relatively quickly. Yuri serves us some tea as we all relax and talk over how things went. I focus on relaxing, letting the Monika drone on about how excited she is. I'm happy for her, but the work and stress of the day is catching up with me, so I simply sit there with my tea, letting the girls think about the club's future. After a short while we clean up the tea set as well, and begin to pack up to leave.

Yuri is the first one out, waving a quick goodbye as she makes her way out the school. Natsuki follows shortly after, and after a couple of seconds of consideration I decide to tail her. Monika can handle locking up and I'll catch Sayori on the way out after I talk with Natsuki. I can tell Natsuki is walking a brisk pace on purpose, probably trying to avoid me. But there's no way I can just accept this sudden change without any explanation.

Before long Natsuki reaches the front door, and when she steps outside I quickly follow and call her name. Obviously annoyed, she turns to me.

"Yeah?"

"What's up with you? You've been treating me different ever since yesterday."

Natsuki looks away for a second, before locking her eyes back onto me. "Nothing's up with me. I just decided we were getting too close."

What? We were getting too close? It honestly didn't seem like things were too much different between us than between her and the rest of the club. "What do you mean by that? Wouldn't you want to... get closer?"

I can see Natsuki struggling to put her feelings to words, before letting out a small sigh. She spoke with a tone that made it seem as if she were confessing something. "I talked with my dad for a while about you and the club, and he said it probably wasn't a good idea for us to get too close. He said that high school romance usually doesn't last and that I needed to focus on my grades anyway. So I decided to cut this relationship short."

I'm startled by frankness for a moment, but quickly respond. "It's not like we were dating or anything! All we did was make some cupcakes and read a little bit together."

Natsuki scoffs. "Come on, that was pretty clearly flirting. And I was easy to tell you were interested. If you thought you were being subtle you're more dense than I thought."

I can see Natsuki regrets that last comment. Not because she's actually worried about hurting my feelings, of course, but because she's slipping back into the playful, semi-serious teasing that permeated our early conversations. She steels herself and then continues.

"L-look... I just don't want things to be weird between us, okay? I'm not interested."

"I never said anything about dating. I just want to know why you think you need to act like I'm not even here. I think you're only one getting worked up about a romantic relationship." That's a complete lie, of course. I've been interested in most of the girls in the club since day one. But I've never let on that that was the case, and I've rebuked it everytime Natsuki suggested that was my reason for coming.

Natsuki blushes. I guess she expected to come clean and admit I was interested in something romantic. "Well... whatever. The point is, I'm focusing on school right now, so don't get any ideas okay?"

I nod, but I know the look on my face gives away my feelings of disappointment. Natsuki turns away without a word, and begins her walk home. Before long Sayori comes out of the school, and the two of us begin our trek home as well.

 **Hopefully it doesn't take longer than a week to get the next one out, but no promises. I'll reexamine this chapter at some point, too. Also, I'm gonna try my hand at poetry for the next one, so be prepared for that to be even worse than this chapter.**


End file.
